Does my food business require a Food Safety Program?

The Food Act 2006 requires some licensable food businesses to have an accredited Food Safety Program (FSP) to systematically identify, document and control food safety hazards within a food business.

Food businesses that are required to have an accredited FSP include those that:

involve off-site catering,

involve onsite catering at the premise stated on the licence,

involve onsite catering at part of the premise stated on the licence

Example: a function room used for on-site catering which is situated on the premises of a large hotel

operate as a private hospital under the Private Health Facilities Act 1999

produce potentially hazardous food for vulnerable populations including hospital patients, young children in child care centres, elderly people in aged care facilities, and services such as meals on wheels.

For further information including examples of on and offsite catering activities that are required to have an accredited FSP please click here.

There are various templates available on the Queensland Health website. These templates are a helpful resource, however, when using a template to develop a FSP you must ensure that it is altered to reflect the actual activities conducted at the food business.

To make an application for FSP accreditation with Council, a paper copy of the completed FSP along with the written advice from an approved auditor must be submitted to Council's Environmental Health Services for assessment. Once recieved the applicable fee will be raised and an invoice for this amount will be provided to the applicant. Please note that the FSP will not be assessed until the fee is paid. If you are applying for a food business licence and the food business requires FSP accreditation, you must apply for both together using the Application for Food Business Licence.

Once an application is received Council has up to 30 days to accredit the FSP. You will be contacted should additional information be required to process the application, please note this will extend the processing timeframes. You will be notified when a decision has been made regarding your application.